"You look… boring."
There, Mary stood, doing her best not to flinch as she felt the judging gaze of the man that she was supposed to meet move from her thin and short brown hair, to her forehead, down to her tired eyes and her slender lips that drew a line in between her freckled pale cheeks.
"Excuse me?" She replied, making her voice sound polite while instinctively moving to the side to dodge someone who was about to bump into her.
"Just when I thought that I would finally have a co-host…" the man then added with a sigh, cupping his chin and pressing his thumb and index finger deep into his face. "Are you okay with doing grunt work?"
"Nice to meet you, sir," she added, making a point not to notice his words before she lowered her head and extended her arm towards him. "my name is Ma-"
He then clicked his tongue that froze her on the spot like it was a magic spell. She felt the sudden urge to punch him and get over with it, but she stopped herself, forcing out an awkward grin as she watched him close his eyes as though he was disgusted while shaking his head before he turned his sights towards her once again. And though looking as if he was suddenly filled with dread, the man raised his right gloved hand over his shoulder, hesitating as he opened his palms before putting it back down with a sharp defeated breath as he pursed his lips.
"I am known as Choir, but you could just call me Jeremy… do you have a codename?" Seeing Mary look at her feet the moment he asked that to her, he breathed out of his nose and with a dismissing tone, he added, "I suppose not. Let's just leave it at that, I'm sorry for assuming that they've sent me a competent one."
"Please take care of me," Mary continued with a wavering smile.
"Oh you're still…" he followed, noticing that Mary was still keeping her hand up for a handshake. He then opened his mouth, making sure that his tongue would make a sound and after a moment, he tightened his jaws and shook it by the finger as he stared into her eyes with an obvious defiant gaze. "I really thought that that loli-ex-boss of mine would give me something good and beneficial to my work," he added, as though with a whisper that was still loud enough for her to hear before he cracked up his pitch to make his tone seem angry and yet almost melodic. "but this is turning into a bother."
"I'm sorry?" Mary replied, still as polite as her voice could be before taking her finger away from his while doing her best to not let her faintest sense of irritation show. "So, should we… talk about the job, sir?"
"Ah… submissive, maybe I'm wrong…" He replied immediately, with his tone getting a bit accommodating as his lips started to draw an elated smile right on his shabby face. Jeremy then shoved his hand at the bag inside his cloak to take out a bundle of papers filled with tabs which he handed to her. "Here's the file that was sent to me just a few hours ago with our current target. I've marked the keypoints, memorize it, please, and I'll discuss the plan with you later."
He started his walk after Mary gave her a nod and of course, she followed his instruction and went through with the report until she found herself gazing at her surroundings, thinking what she should do next. Both of her sides were filled with stalls ranging from canteens promoting their best-selling food through colorful tarpaulins and it if it weren't for the occasional shops that placed their weapons and their intricately designed masks as though it was a piece of art along with the multitude of reapers that walked the white-tiled streets, deranged, bleeding or losing a limb, she would've dismissed this as a normal market.
That didn't stop her from looking nevertheless. Her eyes just jumped from person to person as they walked through the busy street, bringing in that painful sense of hope yet again that she, by chance, would at least catch a glimpse of her previous comrades that she stressed herself to chase. She continued her search with her breath getting deeper and deeper until the man that she was following stopped and turned with his hand stroking the surface of his thin scraggly beard.
"Sir?" Mary stepped back as she raised both her brows in confusion.
"The briefing, I was wondering why you're not asking me things," he replied, squinting as if he was inspecting her before getting his feet to move forward once more. "I saw some other reapers in my favorite shops, so I'm changing my plans." He then stopped for a moment so he could reposition himself to walk beside her and with an expectant smile, he asked, "How did your last mission go though?"
His words made her remember something that made her stomach churn in disgust but after heaving a slow and awkward laugh, she replied, "Nothing much, I just stabbed him a couple of times."
"Nice, well that wasn't included in your file so I just had to ask." He gave her a chuckle before crossing his arms. "I have to say, with your weapon…"
"Yeah, I had to get in there and beat him up real close and oh sorry, sir, for my informal—"
"That's alright, go on."
"Well, I think after dodging his blow, I've cut him open by stabbing him seven to nine times with the last one breaking my knife right when I buried it deep into his throat. Guy actually went out after getting me bukake'd with his memories. Given that he didn't disappear after giving me a goddamn shower, I had to keep an eye on him too as I tried my best to clean myself up."
"Nice."
"I guess so."
"At least you had some fun," he laughed, tapping her shoulder before looking at the end of the hall that was slowly closing in towards them. "I'm starting to think that we're actually going to get along so for now, let's skip the details and let's have you meet with the others."
"Others? What do you—"
Mary followed his lead at the end of the street and as soon as they made a right turn, she met a group of people carrying a few sets of bags behind them. She couldn't help but hold her breath at the moment she realized that they all wore the same set of clothes and carried the same face as the man she had followed.
"Well, we are going to do a show after all," he added, matching her shocked reaction with a smile that only got wider.